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Triest
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TONAWANDA NeWs , Interviewish Article
« on: Jul 20th, 2006, 12:59pm » |
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Goo Goo Dolls set for show with Counting Crows
The Goo Goo Dolls
Contributed Photo / Night & Day
BY ALAN SCULLEY
Night & Day
The new Goo Goo Dolls CD, “Let Love In,” may prove the old adage that you can’t go home again — at least to recapture some sort of musical sound that had gone by the wayside.
In making the new CD, the trio of guitarist/singer Johnny Rzeznik, bassist Robbie Takac and drummer Mike Malinin returned to the group’s hometown of Buffalo for inspiration. The group returns to Western New York for a show Saturday night at Darien Lake with Counting Crows.
Some longtime fans might have hoped it would be the perfect setting for the Goo Goo Dolls to rediscover the punkish edge that defined the group’s early albums like “Jed” and “Hold Me Up.”
But “Let Love In” doesn’t sound like an early Goo Goo Dolls album. Instead, like more recent records “Gutterflower” and “Dizzy Up The Girl,” the new CD emphasizes pop craftsmanship over power. Even rockers like “Stay With You” feature huge chorus melodies more than volume, and overall “Let Love In” favors melodic mid-tempo tracks and ballads like “Here Without You,” “Feel The Silence” and the title song.
Still, Takac, in a recent phone interview, said the return to Buffalo rubbed off in less visible, but perhaps more important ways on “Let Love In.”
“I think maybe people thought we were going to make ‘Jed’ again, you know,” he said. “It wasn’t like that at all. What we were trying to regain again was that feeling of a reason why we’re making these records to begin with.”
For a time before work began on the new CD, Rzeznik, Takac and Malinin weren’t sure if remaining a band was in the cards.
“We came as close to breaking up as we have in a decade about a year ago,” Takac said.
One issue was frustration over the expectations of the band’s record company, Warner Bros. Records. After moving more than 5 million units (and reeling off four hit singles) with the 1998 CD, “Dizzy Up The Girl,” “Gutterflower” — to the label’s disappointment — sold a more modest 800,000 copies.
There were also internal band issues that had to be addressed.
“Sometimes I don’t relate to those guys and they don’t relate to me and we don’t relate to each other,” he said. “You know, we spent so much time on the road we were a little sick of each other, and we were a little bit disappointed that our last album didn’t do as well commercially as the one before.”
So as a first step toward a new CD, Rzeznik, Takac and Malinin convened at Rzeznik’s Los Angeles studio for what turned out to be much more than a jam/songwriting session.
“We had started trying to write songs and do all of that kind of stuff,” Rzeznik said. “But we mostly wound up sitting around and talking and really trying to understand each other again. I had expressed to those guys how I was feeling. I just feel numb.”
As the trio spent more time together, it became clear that they still wanted to be a band. To further their partnership, the group decided to go to Buffalo to work on the CD — and make some big changes in the recording process itself.
After working with producer Rob Cavallo for more than a decade, the band switched to Glen Ballard, whose songwriting and production skills have been put to use by the likes of Alanis Morissette and Dave Matthews.
“I just think we had outgrown our relationship with Rob,” Rzeznik said. “It was sort of like I already knew what we were going to do when we got into the studio if we went in with him again. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to experience someone else’s process.”
Ballard got involved, not just as a producer but as a songwriter on three tunes — a move that was unusual for a band that had always been careful about outside involvement in its records. But Ballard earned the band’s trust.
“I think that having the confidence in him as songwriter and him as a record-maker and him as an orchestrater of personalities in the studio, knowing he has been through that process so many times, made it a little bit easier for us to let go of our process and let him into our process a little bit, which he did,” Takac said. “He became a full-on part of this thing for six months.”
Both Rzeznik and Takac voiced their satisfaction with “Let Love In,” with Takac calling it the best CD the Goo Goo Dolls had made during a career that began in Western New York in 1986.
That satisfaction will be apparent on the group’s summer tour, which Takac said will feature a set that leans heavily on the new material.
“We went into this record really feeling like we should be able to work it and play the whole thing from start to finish,” he said. “In the set itself, what we’re doing is pretty much playing the new record plus nearly everything (else) people want to hear.”
Alan Sculley is a freelance writer.
http://www.tonawanda-news.com/nightandday/local_story_201115359.html?key word=topstory
IF YOU GO ( Of course you will  )
• WHAT: Concert by Counting Crows and the Goo Goo Dolls.
• WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday.
• WHERE: Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien Center.
• COST: $20-$59.50.
• MORE INFORMATION: Visit ticketmaster.com.
Stay True & Rock On!
Triest
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| « Last Edit: Jul 20th, 2006, 1:11pm by Triest » |
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nmf016
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Re: TONAWANDA NeWs , Interviewish Article
« Reply #1 on: Jul 20th, 2006, 3:04pm » |
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There's something strangely fascinating about someone from halfway around the world on the internet alerting me of a newspaper feature in the newspaper sitting on my coffee table. Thanks. The print version has the Goos on the cover and a nice article picture all in color.
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Triest
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Re: TONAWANDA NeWs , Interviewish Article
« Reply #2 on: Jul 20th, 2006, 6:24pm » |
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always glad to be of some assistance... cheers mate!
Stay True & Rock On!
Triest
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